Newt’s Virginia Ballot Debacle: Pearl Harbor?

Updated at 8:00 am, December 26th, 2011

AFP/Getty Images(ATLANTA) — Responding to his campaign’s inability to secure a spot for its candidate on the GOP presidential primary ballot in Virginia — the state where the candidate resides — Newt Gingrich’s national campaign director Michael Krull took to Facebook to say he and Gingrich agreed that the analogy for the setback was the attack on Pearl Harbor.

“Newt and I agreed that the analogy is December 1941: We have experienced an unexpected set-back, but we will re-group and re-focus with increased determination, commitment and positive action,” Krull wrote.

A Gingrich aide confirmed that Krull was referring to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and added “not necessarily just the attack, but the idea we faced a setback and we must regroup, we must move ahead.”

On Dec. 7, 1941, two waves of Japanese fighter planes attacked U.S. forces in Hawaii, killing 2,403 Americans (including 68 civilians) and wounding 1,178 civilians and military; sinking or damaging 21 ships in the U.S. Pacific fleet; and destroying 188 U.S. aircraft and damaging 159.